Cities in UK ‘are becoming no-go drug ghettoes’

Parts of British cities are in danger of becoming âno-go areasâ controlled by drug-dealing gangs, international experts have suggested.

Heroin deaths are rising in the UK (Picture: AP)

Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool are being compared to drug-tainted cities in the US, Mexico and Brazil in a UN report.

They are under threat from mobsters using drugs to enslave vulnerable youngsters or ethnic minorities.The problem is being driven by social inequality and the glamorisation of drugs by celebrities, the UNâs International Narcotics Control Board report claims.

President Prof Hamid Ghodse said: âIn many societies around the world, whether developed or developing, there are communities within the societies which develop which become no-go areas. Drug traffickers, organised crime, drug users, they take over. They will get the sort of governance of those areas.â

The warnings are based on research and feedback by bodies such as the World Health Organisation, policing groups and medics reporting to the INCB.

Prof Ghodse spoke of âa vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communitiesâ and called for action to prevent the spread of âno-go areasâ.

He added: âExamples are in Brazil, Mexico, in the United States, in the UK, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester â therefore it is no good to have only law enforcement, which always shows it does not succeed.â

The number of Britons treated for cannabis abuse has risen by 40 per cent since 2006, it also pointed out.

Illegal internet pharmacies targeting young people by using social networking websites to trade illicit drugs were another major concern.

However, Ch Con Tim Hollis, from the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: âI simply do not recognise the reference to âno goâ areas in the UK.â Drugs campaign group Release called it âirresponsible scaremongeringâ.